A favorite toy from when my oldest was little…
I was reading through Strobist Lighting 102 and decided to try some of the exercises he had. Wow! Did you know that the closer the flash is to the subject the less light will go to the background? I didn’t — and it doesn’t seem intuitive either, because if the flash is closer to the subject it is also closer to the background, right? But it doesn’t matter — it’s the relative distance that matters. And the relative distance between the flash and subject is much smaller than the relative distance between the flash and the background and so the background goes kaput! It was like the skies opened and angels began to sing. I got it!!
This was an example to show that the distance of the flash makes a difference on whether it is hard or soft. The flash is sitting right above his head (covered with a piece of paper to diffuse it a bit) and even though it’s small the light is soft because it is all relative to the figure. He’s smaller than the flash and it is close enough that it is soft.
So light is all relative it would seem…